Friday, May 12, 2006

Two stories in the Tennessean feature local women who have made journeys of compassion to Central America, one to Honduras and the other to Panama.

This Tennessean story describes the humanitarian work of Spring Hill single mom Jenny Rogers in Honduras:

"'I have lived in subsidized housing, faced unemployment, struggled to finish my degree, worked free-lance for years, raising my kids to the best of my ability . . . all by myself,' Rogers said."

"After two broken marriages and a roller-coaster ride of jobs, she enrolled at MTSU in 2004 in theater to complete an undergraduate degree abandoned years before."

"But with all her personal concerns, she never lost her passion for the people in Honduras."

"'When I first went to Honduras, I realized I had a lot in common with the women there," Rogers said. "Single moms trying to raise their children against all odds — needing resources, wondering where to turn to find them.'"

"In 1999, letters from her best friend's brother, who was in the Air Force and based in Honduras, moved Rogers to visit the people and see if she could help. Two months after her first trip, Rogers created KidSAKE Foundation. The nonprofit supports a decades-old children's soup kitchen in Cane, home to about 3,500 people."

And this story in the Tennessean describes the passions stirred in Lipscomb University student Megan Green after her first church mission trip to Panama:

"[H]er Panamanian experience has her pledging to spend a part of every summer serving the Church of Christ mission in Panama."

"'I'm going to keep going back on mission trips as long as I can,' she says. 'This first one really changed how I look at life.'"

"To illustrate, she flips a photo album chronicling her journey to a shot of some wide-eyed kids, lining up for medical exams. 'Look at them. These are children from the children's home.'"

"Megan, a member of Winchester's Owl Hollow Church of Christ, worked with folks from several churches to serve those kids and the adults who flocked to the gym that served as dormitory, worship center, exam room and pharmacy."

"'When you're a kid, you're kind of, you know, 'I want this' and 'I want that,' but going on a trip like this makes you want to stop that.'"